Browsing: Financial Inclusion

Digital payments in Kenya have been ruled by Safaricom through its revolutionary MPesa services. This is despite there being other local players like Airtel Money and Telkom’s  T-Kash competing for the local share of mobile money transfer.

Safaricom has gone global targeting international remittances and linking with global players like Western Union and Pay Pal to make trans-border  transfers.

However, during the just concluded East Africa EuroMoney Conference locally hosted by Central Bank of Kenya, the CBK governor Dr Patrick Njoroge noted that these innovations though first tested and embraced in Kenya, must not sleep on their laurels.

Dr Njoroge noted that Kenya was able to enjoy the innovation and domesticate the technology, which has drawn the admiration of global players and replicated world over.

However, it is the entry of global players like WhatsApp, WeChat, Alipay and Apple Cash which have made it easier to transfer money, purchase items …

When Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority announced it will launch its regulations for a sandbox, industry players knew the regulator was going into uncharted waters, at least on the continent. Though this kind of concept has been tested and approved in other global markets, Kenya was taking the mantle in leading the continent in helping fintechs experiment and innovate in a controlled environment.

Fintechs have played a great role in providing access to finance for Africa but they have been hindered by lack of certainty with some failing to make it to the next year. However, they remain key to financial inclusivity in the continent that has long been left behind n this realm.

A regulatory sandbox is a framework set up by a financial sector regulator to allow small scale, live testing of innovations by private firms in a controlled environment under the regulator’s supervision. The concept, which was developed …

Tanzania`s vast geographical boundaries and mobile phone penetration among its demographics have attributed to a shift of many Tanzanians from traditional cash transactions to emerging mobile payment solutions.

Mobile solutions are being used to send money home, facilitate informal business transactions, pay bills, or buy pre-paid electricity. Notably, low-income people, especially in the rural areas, find value in remote digital payment solutions.

According to the second National Financial Inclusion Framework 2018-2022 (NFIF2), mobile payment solutions have contributed to an increasing number of adults in the formal financial systems, from 58 per cent in 2013 to 65 per cent in 2017.

The framework further asserts that the combined efforts between the government and the private sector are a main factor for the upsurge in financial inclusion.

The World Bank also maintains that the inclusion of people in the formal financial system will enable communities, especially businessmen to access financial services with …